I stood in line at the post office yesterday to mail a parcel. While I waited, I perused the stamps in the case that bordered the line and saw some lovely Sarah Vaughan stamps. As I moved closer to the teller, I noticed that they still advertised Rudolph stamps at the counter and decided I would get some of those. Maybe it would bring joy to the people who see them.
As I anticipated, once the teller had finished processing the package she asked, “Do you need any stamps today?”
“Do you really still have the Rudolph stamps?” I asked, almost giddy. “If so, I’d like two please.”
She affirmed that they still had them, got two sets for me and scanned them.
No beep.
She frowned and scanned again.
Still no beep.
Her frown deepened and she called for backup. While we waited, the clerk and I talked about our fond memories of Rudolph (“I want to be a dentist.”) and how her grandchildren didn’t enjoy it when she showed it to them. Her associate told her that she had tried to ring them up the other day and found that they’d been listed as discontinued. I thought, Poor Rudolph, discontinued yet again!
But it was true. They’d been listed as discontinued and, although this post office still had the stamps, they could not sell them to me because they no longer existed in the computer. There was no way to ring them up. And so, I defaulted to my original plan and got the Sarah Vaughan stamps.
They are lovely, but I walked out of the post office singing the Blues.
booksandbassets 